Ebola fight needs more medical staff: WHO
Iran Press TV
Fri Sep 12, 2014 1:7PM GMT
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for more international medical workers to battle the Ebola epidemic which has so far killed over 2,400 people.
Margaret Chan, the head of the UN health agency, told a news conference in Geneva on Friday that the deadly outbreak requires a stronger, faster response from the international community.
"In the three hardest-hit countries, the number is moving faster than the capacity to manage them," Chan said, adding, "As of September 12, we are at 4,784 cases and more than 2,400 deaths."
According to the WHO, another 500 foreign health professionals and around 1,000 local doctors and nurses are needed to halt Ebola's fatal surge through West Africa.
"The thing we need most of all is people," Chan said.
The development comes as Cuba has promised to send 165 doctors and nurses to Sierra Leone, where the virus has so far claimed over 500 lives.
Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda has said that the 62 doctors and 103 nurses would start their mission from the first week of October and remain for six months in Sierra Leone.
The UN has also pledged that its peacekeeping force in Liberia, which is one of the worst-affected countries along with Guinea and Sierra Leone, would "stay the course" against Ebola.
"We are here to stay the course and to help the people of Liberia and its neighbors to get through this terrible crisis," UN peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, said late Thursday.
Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can be also spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.
MR/KA/SS
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